BASF invests in fuelish things

By coincidence, last week we spent some time looking at a 30-year-old report, Energy R&D In The United Kingdom. This was in pre-word processor, let alone PDF, days, so you have to turn pages to get its messages.

 

Back then, with oil supplies hit by political turmoil, there was a lot of talk of new ways of turning coal into more useful fuels. Which is why a story from BASF Venture Capital America Inc. seemed particularly interesting. The investor is putting $3 million in LUCA Technologies, which "develops biotechnology that uses microorganisms to reactivate or intensify the production of methane (natural gas) from finite fuels such as coal or oil".

 

We read that LUCA, which was founded in 2001 and has about 30 employees, "employs genomics, molecular biology and other tools of biotechnology to detect, classify and study microorganisms – those that live without oxygen – that metabolize oil, shale and coal within the earth into natural gas". So they are attacking the old problem with a bunch of new tools that weren't around 30 years ago.

 

All the same, there was so much written about energy R&D in the 1970s that it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend a bit of time looking at the material. If nothing else, it might reveal that some of the grand new ideas on offer today aren't so novel after all.